RESEARCH | PEER REVIEWED “It’s Like Mixing Paint”: Songwriting Alternative Gender Cultures with Young People as an ‘After-Queer’ Methodology Elly Scrine 1 * 1 National Music Therapy Research Unit, The University of Melbourne *[email protected] Received: 26 February 2019 Accepted: 7 September 2019 Published: 1 November 2019 Editors: Candice Bain, Maevon Gumble Reviewers: Milo Boggan, Marisol Norris Abstract This paper conceptualises songwriting as an ‘after-queer’ approach for exploring no- tions of gender and sexuality with young people. The article draws on songs creat- ed by seven groups of young people in music-based workshops which took place in schools with participants aged between 14–17. During these workshops, songwriting was used to explore the participants' imaginings of what gender might look like in their "perfect world".'After-queer' scholarship is introduced and referred to through- out the paper as it relates to queer theory and research with young people, particu- larly focusing on discourses of risk and vulnerability that emerge across these fields. The paper highlights the value of creative and arts-based methodologies in queer re- search, through which expansion and questions of possibility, alternative, and iden- tity can be raised and responded to.'After queer' is offered as a useful lens for crit- ical analysis, particularly in light of complex questions related to the promotion of "diversity" that emerged through the findings. Keywords: gender, gender diversity, young people, schools, songwriting, after-queer Introduction This article draws on songs created by seven groups of young people in music-based workshops, to conceptualise songwriting as an after-queer (Talburt & Rasmussen, 2010) approach for exploring gender and sexuality with young people. The paper demon- strates the value of creative and arts-based methodologies in queer youth research, through which notions of expansion, alternative possibilities, and identity can be raised and responded to. In doing so, I seek to highlight and critique dominant nar- ratives present in research related to young people – narratives that focus on wound- edness, victimhood, and risk, and that ultimately position queer and gender diverse young people as inherently vulnerable. I write the paper as a queer person myself, who is White, socialised as a woman, and nondisabled. As a non-Aboriginal person in Aus- tralia, I locate myself as a settler on occupied lands. In relation to matters of gender and sexuality, I am informed particularly by the work of scholars who reflect upon the VOICES: A WORLD FORUM FOR MUSIC THERAPY | VOL 19 | NO 3 | 2019 Publisher: GAMUT - Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre (NORCE & University of Bergen) Copyright: 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v19i3.2852 VOICES: A WORLD FORUM FOR MUSIC THERAPY RESEARCH ways the gender binary has been normalised and naturalised through overt and covert processes of White dominance, colonisation, and Western imperialism (for example re- fer to Lugones, 2013; Mohanty, 1988). The data drawn upon in this paper stem from a broader doctoral project which ex- amined the role of music therapy in exploring gender and power with young people in school. The project commenced with a one-year pilot study, in which songwriting was used with groups of young people in one-off workshops across seven separate school sites, to explore their ideas of what gender might look like in their “perfect world.” I commence the paper by articulating the key tenets of after-queer scholarship, and its relationship to queer theory. Next, I review the literature related to gender and queer theory in music therapy research and practice. I then provide a methodological overview of the study before presenting a selection of the songs written by the partic- ipants in the project. Using an after-queer lens, I examine the themes present in these songs and what songwriting offered as a process of repositioning, and I note someof the complexities and tensions that arose in the data. After-Queer After-queer is a term initiated by gender and sexuality theorists in youth studies and educational studies, Susan Talburt and Mary Lou Rasmussen. In defining and propos- ing the need for after-queer scholarship, Talburt and Rasmussen (2010) explicated sev- eral key points. First, that after-queer does not denounce or police queer theory or im- ply that it is post or beyond queer theory (p. 1). Rather, the language of after-queer acknowledges that queer itself is an always-incomplete project rather than an arrival point. In this sense, after-queer is a pursuit of queer and a pursuit of meaning beyond what can still be accomplished within queer theory (p. 2). Such pursuit is a response to the limitations identified by authors such as Jean Bobby Noble(2006) in the ways queer representational vocabularies tend to both stabilise and destabilise. Alan McKee (1999) wrote about the sense of fatigue in routine queer analysis: “Queer writing too often falls into simplistic celebration – how many times can one read that Queer offers a way of deconstructing the binary categories by which heterosexuality sustains and reproduces itself, and still feel excited?” (p. 166). Thus, after-queer seeks to engage critically with tendencies, habits, limitations, and traditions associated with queer theory and research; it is an inevitably fraught and multifaceted project. Centrally, however, after-queer is invested in problematising and decoupling notions of the subject, particularly queer youth. Talburt and Rasmussen (2010) pointed to the “abject gay youth” as a foundational figure in queer research (p. 3). They argued that the constant drift towards narratives of woundedness, risk, and victimhood that pervade queer narratives construct a paradox: positioning queer youth as “our children” in need of protection, appeasing the guilt of the privileged, and reify- ing ideas of nationalistic “goodness.” Talburt (2010) wrote that after-queer offers new possibilities to extend queer’s potential for analysis, by detaching queer from specific subjects and necessitated associations with transgression and resistance (p. 50). Daniel Marshall (2010) wrote that after-queer “sympathizes with but also moves beyond the queer critique of victim-based or deficit approaches” (p. 66). Broadly, after-queer does not necessitate a centring of queer subjects, and it challenges the sense of othering constructed by the binary of homo/heterosexual. After-queer seeks to disrupt universal- ising discourses of “problems” and “solutions,” problematising regulatory narratives of progress and the idea that transgression is inherently transformative. Talburt (2010) summarised, “A goal for ‘after-queer’ research is to refuse to create identities as an- swers or to create answers for identities” (p. 62). Gender and Sexuality in Music Therapy Since the 21st century, literature related to music therapy practice and lesbian, gay, bi- sexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual + (LGBTQIA+) studies has grown signif- icantly. Discourse in music therapy began with a small handful of reflections on work- Scrine. Voices 2019, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v19i3.2852 2 VOICES: A WORLD FORUM FOR MUSIC THERAPY RESEARCH ing with LGBT clients (Ahessy, 2011; Chase, 2004), has since seen an empirical inter- est in examining music therapists’ attitudes and actions, and has developed new the- oretical models and best practice guidelines for working with LGBTQIA+ populations (Whitehead-Pleaux et al., 2012; Whitehead-Pleaux et al., 2013; Whitehead-Pleaux & Tan, 2017). Said research indicated music therapists’ interest and support for working with LGBTQIA+ clients, though highlights some of the persistent clashes within the literature related to how queerness and gender diversity is examined and represent- ed. In Whitehead-Pleaux et al.’s (2012) national survey, over half of the respondents indicated that music therapists do not feel adequately prepared for such work. A small- er study by Wilson and Geist (2017) subsequently surveyed music therapists in train- ing, aiming to gauge music therapy students’ self-reported preparedness to work with LGBT clients. Their research revealed inconsistencies in students’ knowledge and self- perceived preparedness, and the authors encouraged music therapy educators to more directly address gender and sexuality-related issues. An after-queer perspective, however, may critique the positioning of queer and gen- der diverse clients as a separate and distinct subject group who therapists must “pre- pare” to work with. Primarily, an after-queer lens questions the implications of seeking progress through a focus on the “LGBTQIA+ subject.” Especially given that measuring therapists’ self-identified preparedness conveys not only a level of implied vulnerabili- ty of the queer subject, but a focus on the music therapy profession to reveal how com- fortable/uncomfortable they are to work with, and indeed protect, such a population. Further, by grouping and seeking to develop “best practice” for LGBTQIA+ people, narratives of queer and gender non-conforming individuals as a single and cohesive group are upheld. Doing so could be seen to collapse the broad range of needs and infinitely diverse experiences of LGBTQIA+